Retirement: what the France-Israel convention means for you

Yes, a bilateral social security convention does exist between France and Israel, and it covers retirement in particular: your years of contributions in France are therefore not lost when you settle in Israel. In practice, it lets you have your rights recognised and coordinated between the two countries, rather than physically transferring savings from one system to the other.

An old convention, still in force

Signed in 1965 and in force since 1 October 1966, the social security convention between France and Israel covers old-age and survivors' benefits in particular. It is officially listed by the CLEISS (Centre des Liaisons Européennes et Internationales de Sécurité Sociale, the French body that centralises information on international social security agreements). This is reassuring for many olim: the convention is not a mere administrative custom, it is a bilateral text that still applies today.

The key principle: aggregation of periods

The central mechanism of the convention is called the aggregation of insurance periods. In plain terms, when you apply for your pension, the competent institution adds up your contribution periods completed in France and those completed in Israel, provided they do not overlap, to determine whether you reach the length required to open your rights. Without this aggregation, a career split between the two countries could, in some cases, fall short everywhere of the length needed for a pension entitlement. The convention avoids this scenario.

Once your rights are open, each country calculates and pays its own share, in proportion to the length of time you actually contributed on its territory. Depending on the case, you can thus receive two separate pensions, one French and one Israeli, each calculated according to the rules of its own country.

A simplified example to understand the mechanism

Let us take a purely educational example, with no official calculation value. A person who had worked about fifteen years in France before making aliyah, then several more years in Israel, would see the two periods added together to check whether their rights open, even if neither period taken on its own would have been enough. Each country would then pay its own pension, calculated according to its own rules and in proportion to the years actually contributed there. It is this logic of coordination, not of merging the two systems, that you should remember.

Can your pensions be paid in Israel?

Yes, this is another important contribution of the convention: it provides for the export of benefits, that is, the possibility of receiving your French pension while living in Israel, without your place of residence calling into question your right to payment. This is an essential point for many olim retirees, who sometimes wrongly fear having to choose between living in Israel and receiving their French pension.

What the convention does not cover

It is important not to have illusions about the scope of this agreement: according to the CLEISS, the coordination provided by the Franco-Israeli convention concerns old age and survivors, but not health insurance or disability. For those branches, each system works independently, and you will need to find out separately about your rights in Israel (Bitoua'h Leumi - National Insurance, private health insurance) and in France. Likewise, French supplementary pensions may follow their own rules, not necessarily identical to those of the basic scheme: it is better to check your specific case with your fund or a broker rather than assume that everything works in exactly the same way.

How to claim your rights in practice

In practice, making the convention work means putting together a file with your French career statements, available through your online pension account in France, and your periods of affiliation in Israel. Depending on your situation, the process can be started with the Caisse nationale d'assurance vieillesse on the French side, or with the National Insurance Institute on the Israeli side, which then pass the information on to the competent institution of the other country. This administrative process can take time, and it goes all the more smoothly if you have kept a clear record of your French career before leaving the country.

When to start the process

There is no need to wait until retirement age to look into this subject. Many olim benefit from gathering their French career statements as soon as they settle in Israel, while they still easily have access to their login details and their former employers, rather than reconstructing everything decades later. This also applies to people who had a short or fragmented career in France: even a few years of contributions can be useful in the overall calculation once combined with the length of affiliation in Israel, thanks to the aggregation principle.

Why get support rather than manage it alone

The convention provides a protective framework, but its practical application depends on your career, your age, and the schemes you contributed to in France, whether the general scheme, the civil service or the liberal professions. Every file is different, and a wrong interpretation can be costly in time or in poorly valued rights. Our Assurance Retraite page also presents the private Israeli arrangements that complement what the convention covers, for an overall view of your future pension.

If you are preparing your aliyah, or if you already live in Israel and have questions about your French rights, the safest thing is to talk to a professional who knows both systems. Contact us to review your career and understand how the convention applies concretely to your situation.